​I’d been making a point of ignoring Huntington Beach Assemblyman Travis Allen‘s vainglorious run for California Governor, since we first broke the story last year. For one thing, I was hoping he’d stay in the race and not go back to his Assembly seat with his newly-filled coffers, despite the OC GOP insiders who told me,

“Never impressed with that dude. Walks around everywhere with his shirt half unbuttoned. Thinks he’s God’s gift to the world. This is just a prank to get more attention and money, he’s going to back off and stay in the assembly.”

Why do I hope Travis stays in the Governor race? Well … a good reason and a bad one. First I think his reptilian anointed assembly successor Tyler Diep might be a little easier for the right Democrat to beat than a super-funded celebrity incumbent. The other reason is probably petty, immature and partisan: Travis is so tightly wedded to the TRUMP sliver of California’s electorate – with his nonstop demonization of Mexicans, Democrats and Muslims and his total disregard for facts – that having him as the California GOP’s standard-bearer is bound to kill that Party even deader. I know. Mean, huh.

​This showing comes not long after his demagoguing of the Steinle-Zarate not-guilty verdict, in which Travis, aping Master Trump and totally disregarding the Steinle family’s wish for people to stop using Kate as a political football, let us all know that he was “saddenned [sic], angry, and embarassed [sic]” over the San Francisco jury’s finding that the shooting was a tragic accident, and please send Travis money now so he can become Governor and deport more Mexicans so that more Kate Steinles can go on living.

Because, you know, Trump and Travis had really taken the time to consider all the evidence the jury had (NOT), and it’s a no-brainer that any Mexican immigrant who happens to not have his papers in order is one step away from randomly shooting a young blonde woman.

​AND Travis’ triumphant 9% showing comes DIRECTLY after his FOX News appearance below (FOX being a place he spends more time at than on the Assembly floor!) in which he not only asked Trump and AG Jeff Sessions to please sue California over our “Sanctuary State” law – great choice to lead the state! – but also falsely claimed that 74% of us Californians “are absolutely against sanctuary state policies.“

​This last claim – 74% of Californians opposing the new policy – earned Travis the coveted designation of LIAR from the non-partisan fact-checking group Politifact last week. Travis, conveniently, in order to find the factoid he wanted, had gone back three years to a 2015 poll, in which the term “sanctuary state” was not explained to or understood by respondents, and most notably taken at a time when Trump was never expected to become President, nor were his mass deportations envisioned. Politifact provides us with four polls – all taken last year – which actually spell out what the loaded term “sanctuary state” means, i.e. “California law enforcement personnel will not hand over immigrants in the country illegally to U.S. immigration agents, unless the person has committed a serious crime” – and more Californians support that than oppose it. Most recent poll from two months ago, far from Travis’ 74%, shows only 18% “strongly oppose it.” Good, maybe those 18% of Californians can vote for Travis, who continues to insist that all the other polls SUCK EGGS apart from the old one he likes.

​No doubt 74% (or more) of the folks Travis surrounds himself with would like to see more deportations of Mexicans – that’s the world we live in now, way too few of us consorting with folks who disagree with us. But this is the reality most of us are seeing nowadays:

DEPORTED AFTER 30 YEARS: 39-year-old Jorge Garcia, a married father of two from Detroit, sobbed as he was deported to Mexico after living in the United States for 30 years, brought here when he was just 10. David Muir reports. http://abcn.ws/2reV94R

​So, stay in the race, Travis, and be the California GOP’s standard-bearer of hatred, fear, and lies! (I know, childish and partisan of me, huh. I apologize to my nice Republican friends… You’ll probably prefer that Cox dude, or even Villaraigosa.)

About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist in Orange County, and official troubador of both Anaheim and Huntington Beach (the two ends of the Santa Ana Aquifer.) Performs regularly both solo, and with his savage-jazz quintet The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.

19 Comments

I pretty much got over “the worse things get, the better they get” over the past year.

I still like John Chiang AND Delaine Eastin, and have been pushing for their supporters to coalesce behind whichever them has the best chance to beat Villaraigosa, Travis, Cox, and new (or is it still *likely* new?) GOP entry and mutant form of sugar Doug Ose for second place in the runoff against Newsom. Hope is fading.

Watch out for former Northeast Rep. Ose, though: he’s the sort of candidate Reeps generally like and seems to me to be the most likely to prevent a double “notoriously screwed his good friend’s wife” runoff for Governor. (All the more reason to support Chiang or Eastin.

Rational voters don’t take Allen’s candidacy any more seriously than he does. He’s posturing for something else down the line. I don’t believe he honestly thinks he actually has a chance at the governor’s mansion.

Well, at least no more so than Trump thought he did. And now look where we are. So, who knows.

I honestly just wish we didn’t have to choose between a barely literate corporate lackey (Villariagosa) and a completely bonkers far left progressive egomaniac (Newsom). No one decent ever has a chance for higher office in this state. It’s shameful.

I’m not even a Republican and i am voting Travis. He is the only one who won’t turn Ca into a third world country. Look at the areas the other runner ups are out of and run. Those areas are complete dumps. Travis came out of O.C, which is beautiful and diverse.

I have researched the runner ups and Ca can’t take another governor brown. We need a balance here. Otherwise, Ca will turn into the dump l.a is. I’m voting for Travis..